Alcohol use disorders associated with an increased risk of mesenteric ischemia: A nationwide cohort study

Background: To evaluate the relationship of patients with a history of alcohol use disorders (AUD) and its diagnostic categories with risk of subsequent mesenteric ischemia in Taiwan.

Methods: A nationwide population-based cohort study was conducted using data from the Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database. We identified 73,583 patients hospitalized for AUD between 2001 and 2010, and matched each case with four comparison patients based on age, gender, Charlson comorbidity index, and the index date. Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate the risk of mesenteric ischemia between the AUD and non-AUD cohorts. Hazard ratios (HR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) were calculated.

Results: Patients with AUD exhibited a significantly increased risk of developing mesenteric ischemia (HR = 2.25; 95% CI 1.92-2.64) compared with those with non-AUD after adjustment for patient sociodemographic, coexisting comorbid conditions, and hospital characteristics. Furthermore, a 2.29- and 2.17-fold higher risk of mesenteric ischemia was observed in patients with alcohol abuse/dependence (HR = 2.29; 95% CI 1.94-2.71) and alcoholic psychosis (HR = 2.17; 95% CI 1.72-2.73), respectively, than in non-AUD comparisons after covariate adjustment.

Conclusions: This study confirmed that the risk of mesenteric ischemia was significantly higher among patients with different diagnostic categories of AUD, particularly for those with alcohol abuse/dependence.